Well, it's true we haven't been getting out as much lately. Don has needed to work at home quite a bit of late. In fact, he was working when I took these pictures. He had to go to Toronto on business, so I got up early Sunday morning for a 7:30 a.m. reunion with my Junior High friends.
Margaret (was Hardesty, but for many years now has been Flynn thanks to the late and wonderful Laurence [Larry] Flynn) who has just recently returned to Dana Point to care for her Mom.
Rene' (was Postal, now White) now lives in Aliso Viejo.
And as you know I'm in Westminster.
It having been given to me to choose the meeting spot, I could have chosen a middle ground but am not too familiar with Aliso Viejo, so, I decided on a place I knew was familiar to us all, the Dana Point Harbor Jolly Roger.
I had every intention of taking photographs when I arrived and asking a waitress to photograph all of us together, but alas, I was so thrilled to see them both and so engrossed in our conversation that I forgot to take even one! This, despite the fact that I'd just taken some on the way there of our old Junior High.
So I apologize that all you get to see here are photos of San Juan Capistrano's Marco Forster Junior High School...rain bespattered...behind locked gates. It was fun for ME because I hadn't been on these grounds since attending the school in 8th grade---not going to tell you how long ago that was, but I can tell you that nothing neighboring it now was there then. My two friends were unimpressed to learn I'd just come from photographing it, as they've been there more recently with their kids (Neither had a child that actually attended the school, but both had been to one special event or another). So pretty much my only hope at finding someone who might be pleased to see the place is my friend Penny (Benz, now Slingerland---and may-haps her husband, Douglas), who I get to see this April when she comes out from Washington on a brief business trip. I met Penny in Science, Rene at our neighborhood bus stop in Capistrano Beach, and Margaret in Drama class. From the moment I first set foot on the grounds I loved the school. I'd just moved from Garden Grove. I mentioned when I first started this blog that as a child I moved quite often. I'd never realized before landing in San Clemente for 7th grade that a person might love a home for it's location. I'd always gotten fond of homes because of people I'd met but when I landed in South Orange County it was the first time I was fond of the area first, and then the people. San Clemente was one of our shorter lived moves however and I all too soon found myself finishing 7th grade in Costa Mesa--but apparently Mom had loved the area too and 8th grade found us in Capistrano Beach so I was back with my friends and making new ones at Marco Forster. And these were friendships to last a lifetime.
Before I leave the subject, best I not leave out three of the other great friends in our circle; Arlene Rodriguez (sorry--I've forgotten her married name. She passed on with Cancer the same week that Princess Diana left us), Mary Morrill (now Lovejoy) who lives in Northern California, and Tracy Ramirez (now Kenoyer) who was a 9th grade San Clemente High add-on to the circle, as she was living in Seal Beach, I believe, when we were all at Marco Forester. Tracy is now in Arizona.
Sorry if this has all been very boring. If yes, than I'm afraid the photos won't inspire you either.
Be that as it may, here they are.
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